2009
Spring Bay Resort Album
June
20-27, 2009
Lake Vermilion, West End
Cook, Minnesota
My
friend Jonathan and I visited Spring
Bay Resort in Cook, Minnesota fishing the west end of Lake
Vermilion for early summer smallmouth bass and northern pike.
I checked in on Saturday afternoon and Jon came in on Tuesday
afternoon. The weather for the most part was sunny and warm,
with a couple days of very windy conditions. For this trip we
have lots of stories. Let's start with the fishing.
We caught lots of medium size fish. Jon also caught his largest
largemouth bass at a whopping 18.5 inches and shaped like a
football! Several nice northern pike and smallmouth bass were
caught and released each day, and an occasional walleye, rock
bass, perch, and largemouth bass. Although we didn't land a
muskie, I had two follows during the week at two different locations.
Both fish were at least 45 inches long and thick. Jon had a
monster pike engulfed his jig and when he set the hook the line
just snapped. The bass were in the weed beds tight up against
the shoreline in their spawning phase. The pike were everywhere
it seemed like but most of the bigger ones we caught were in
between islands or in quiet weedy bays. Fishing was always better
in the bays with the wind blowing into the bay. We both had
sore wrists from pulling in so many fish.
We
had a couple of hilarious bird encounters. One of the evenings,
we were grilling Korean bacon outside and had just finished
our meal to go inside to catch up on the news. A crow lands
on our porch and observes the two bacon strips that remained
on the plate. He was so methodical in getting the strips that
we actually got him in the act of stealing our bacon. (See photos
below.) Another story: On the final night, I was in the cabin
typing on the computer just a tad after midnight when something
swooped over my head from behind. I looked up into the kitchen
and saw something flapping and thought it was a big mosquito.
Closer observation I realized it was a bat! It swooped again
and I dodged underneath the dining table and ran into my room
closing the door. Jon saved the night by opening the door to
the outside and lead the bat out the door with a broomstick.
It
was a fun memorable trip!
